The STS 125 Mission is the one to upgrade and repair the Hubble Telescope for the last time. Oh, my heart. This Space Telescope is the most loved instrument for all time all over the world.
Monday, September 29, 2008
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Hey - no worries about any delays - sounds like you have a ridiculously busy schedule! And I bet you love it, too! Good luck with all of that!
ReplyDeleteI agree that what is in effect mankind's greatest peacetime endeavor seems to have faded from the public consciousness. NASA let the program slip, or rather had no choice as other issues too the government of the day's attention - Vietnam, Tricky Dicky, all that - and other things became more important and to the public the space race faded out - a sad, sad mistake. People are so wrapped up in their daily problems - rightly so - that they never have chance to look at the bigger picture. Something like Apollo was man's first real chance - albeit maybe driven by not exactly the right motivations - to bring the world together as humans and not as nationalities. And for that brief, fleeting moment, they succeeded. Just for that moment. And to be able to say that you were part of that? The rarest of privileges. And something to be truly treasured. But soon enough the daily squabbles of life and politics took hold again like vines in a forgotten garden. The pace was lost, and the runners slowed, and the people forgot. A true shame. And now it is so hard to engage that public unity, that spirit of humanity. Even that such as the Hubble, with its wondrous images of the universe in which we live, we tiny, insignificant specks, falls on deaf ears. We had the chance then to bridge the daily grind and pursue an overriding need of our species - to unite in one true purpose - and we missed it. Looking at the world today, it seems hard to believe that we will ever get the chance again, without horrendous hardship or loss of life. For people like yourself, who perhaps saw this opportunity to ride on the coat-tails of politics - the Cold War - and to bring about something that forced everyone to see through the same eyes only to see it slip out of our grasp, must be heartbreaking. It is to me. This world today is a shallow, hard and unforgiving place, and there isn't a day goes by that I don't feel myself loathing deeper and deeper the human race for their crimes, insanity and petty-politics. Our only hope - albeit slim - is that, depite restrictions of funding and the political agenda people like you still cradle this technology and work quietly, peacefully to bridge geo-political diffrences and unite those in their field for a greater purpose. For it seems that ony in the world of science and exploration are there no boundaries. And we have to hope that this quiet, unassuming work - when put in perspective with the pointless sabre-rattling of territory, religion and oil - somehow, someday brings us together again.
Some of us know what it meant, and where it could have taken us. And some of us mourn that it did not and that so many no longer seem to care.
But some still do.
Dogsounds, what a beautiful comment. It is folks like you that help me take away the sadness about Apollo. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBut have heart I know many Engineers, Astronomers and others working today to continue our exploration of space. They email me all the time and it is wonderful to hear the latest advances. And who would have thought in the 1960s that we would be in partnership with the Russians in an International Space Station? I saw the launch of the SS Discovery on May 31st. There was an enormous crowd at the Cape and up and down the coast.
This was my 1st live launch (I never got to see the Saturn V) and I was bawling my eyes out. I looked around and so was everyone else. It told me that most people still love our space program.
If you ever see a launch, you will know why. :o)
I will never give up hope and when speaking, I hope to educate the young folks about the magic of Apollo.
Take heart we will come back. I see good in our future. American's problems lie with the idiotic news media.